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Gun Safe Buying Guides
Gun Safes, Handgun Safes, and Gun Cabinet Guides
I developed these gun safe buying guides out of my own confusion with choosing the right gun safe. It seemed as though no two manufacturers had the same information about their safes.
One manufacturer would call a feature by one term, another by a different term. One company would state that 
locking bolts on 2 or 3 sides was sufficient, while another would say that you must have bolts on four sides.
Still others would tout their fire proof effectiveness and steel thickness as the best, yet others had a different perspective.
You would think that you could get around these inconsistencies by focusing on safes that have been tested by independent research facilities such as Underwriters Laboratories. Unfortunately, some gun safe manufacturers test some aspects of their safes with UL, such as fire proofing, but not others (locks, burglary proofing).
At the end of the day…
- What really is important?
- What features of a safe can you do without?
- What features of a safe must you absolutely not compromise on?
This is the point where I began to write down the criteria for a gun safe that was important to me. Then, ultimately, this clarity that I developed led me to creating this site.
Purchasing a gun safe is expensive. Even the cheap or inexpensive ones cost over $1,000. Some of the premium safes go for well over $5,000. Throwing a couple thousand dollars away on a poorly built safe is not a situation I wanted to be in.
Gun Safe Buying Guide
This Gun Safe Buying Guide is the flagship and the cornerstone of this site. This guide lays out the 24 most important gun safe features you need to know about when making an informed purchasing decision.
All of the full size gun safe reviews on this site are judged against the 24 criteria described in this guide. By using the SAME criteria to evaluate each gun safe, you can easily compare the major (and some not so well known safes) safes that are on the market today.
No more guessing if a same has a clutch mechanism or not. No more wondering why one safe has locking bolts on 2, 3, or 4 sides and why this is important. Now you will know.
Handgun Safe Buying Guide
I have also drafted a Handgun Safe Buying Guide.Handgun safes are much less expensive than a full size gun safe. As such, many people really do not spend the time to familiarize themselves with some basic features.
They just figure all handgun safes are effectively the same or it really doesn’t matter since they are not spending a lot of money on one.
Personally, I think this is a mistake.
People forget that a handgun safe performs several valuable functions.
First and foremost, it protects the handgun from children and others who may become curious about your weapon. I have children and absolutely want to make sure the hand gun safe will keep curious kids away. I am not buying a DVD player, where if it doesn’t work so what.
This item is performing a much more valuable service and I need to choose wisely.
Second, the safe need to offer quick access incase of a break in. I want the handgun safeto perform when I need it to perform. I don’t have time for delays or confusion at 3 am whenthe bad guys are coming into the house. The handgun safe needs to get the job done without fail.
If you think the gun safe market is confusing, you will be even more confused with the handgun safe market. Admittedly, this guide was a little more difficult to put together, but I think you will find it useful for your search.
Gun Cabinet Buying Guide
This gun safe buying guide is currently in the works. I have a little more research to do on the various models before publishing this guide.
While gun cabinets do not have many of the features that a full size gun safe will have, there are many traps for the unwary. I will get this guide polished up shortly.
With these home gun safe buying guides, if you have any comments or suggestions to make them better, please contact me.